April Full Moon ~ finding balance

Happy full moon in Libra, my friends. We made it another cycle, another round. Whenever full moon time comes around, I use it as a time to take stock of where I'm at, what I'm proud of, and if the goals I set during the new moon are still aligning with me.

This month, I've begun my pottery apprenticeship at this fantastic studio in Seattle. It is small, but I'm amazed by its powerful force as a center for the pottery community to gather & create. It's truly magical. Even though I have a home studio, it does get a little lonely working away on my wheel on my own and I've been loving the schedule of heading to the community studio after my day job and making new clay friends and learning from them.

The funny thing about learning a new craft for me is that I get obsessed and find any chance I get to get techniques "correct" and will keep pushing myself to work faster & harder until I see improvements that'll satisfy me. But the thing about pottery and any other art form is that there is always room for improvements. Always. Maybe this is my virgo rising, and maybe also because I thought that in order to be an "artist" I must learn proper form and technique. This led to minor burnout for me and even though I was creating practical vessels on a daily basis, I wasn't feeling creative. Does that make sense? Finally after a wonderful talk with a mentor of mine (hi Jessica!), I realized that I needed to come back to creating for the love I have for ceramics as an art form and simply make more time to play around more with my pieces. Make more time to just see where the process leads me, rather than focusing so hard on the outcome. This sounds so silly & simple, but this realization was huge for me this month! haha I feel a lot lighter now!

As an artist, I am drawn to one-of-a-kind, wabi sabi, human forms that are not as perfect as something store bought, but pieces that take lots of sacred time, thought, and love put into them. So that's what I've been creating this month and promise myself that I will continue to do :)

Bottles in process - waiting to dry so they could enter their first firing :)

I'll be spending this full moon taking a break from my studio with my partner and family tonight which I'm very much needing right now. I hope yours is just as restful and filled with love.

xxx